Fortnite Headed To the Olympics as an Official Esport

Fortnite is now an official Olympic (e)sport, as Epic's metaverse game will be part of the inaugural Olympic Esports Week line-up. From a report Taking place in Singapore, the four-day festival of "virtual sports and gaming" created by the International Olympics Committee will see a dozen players from the Fortnite Champion Series compete in a sharpshooting competition backed by the International Shooting Sport Federation. This event will be (virtually) held on a Fortnite Creative Island that was created just for the event and will showcase the marksmanship of Fortnite's best sharpshooters. If you can't make it to Singapore on June 24, the competition will be livestreamed through the official Olympics website and through the organization's social media channels.

JTFCoaPS this is moronic. How much was IOC paid

[ravenshrike]

Was the bribe in the 8 figures or 9?

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[Luckyo]

Why is it moronic? Olympics cater to popular sports all the time, since the very inception of modern Olympics. Just compare sports back in the first modern Olympic and what we had half a century later if you genuinely believe this is about "modern corruption". Back then, Olympics weren't massive money makers, but an actual amateur sporting event.

And even back then, adding popular new sports was one of the main means of growing the event.

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[Luckyo]

I'm sure you feel very smart in firing off this knee jerk emotional reply.

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[Chris Mattern]

As somebody else has pointed out--Fortnite is a copyrighted product. Nobody can run a game of Fortnite legally without Epic Games permission. Battle Royale is free-to-play, but Epic Games can still withhold permission to play the game as they see fit, and you can only play a game by connecting to Epic's servers The whole game is dependent on Epic continuing to provide servers (anybody out there want to play Overwatch 1?).. *This* is the problem. I can participate in any Olympic sport I want to. I need

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[Luckyo]

You basically copy pasted my reply to that very argument. Because that was a good argument against including Fortnite.

Unlike the general "whine whine they paid them off, whine whine" nonsense.

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[ravenshrike]

Oh, I'm sorry, I thought that a privately owned product that is not merely a set of rules being the basis of an Olympic event was obviously a monumentally retarded idea and didn't need me to spell it out. Apparently however, I was wrong.

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[Ol Olsoc]

Why is it moronic? Olympics cater to popular sports all the time, since the very inception of modern Olympics.

Call me when they institute fucking for fun.

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[ItsJustAPseudonym]

And the Greek judge gives the highest score for...what maneuver?

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[Ol Olsoc]

And the Greek judge gives the highest score for...what maneuver?

It's a combination move sometimes used to save people from choking.

the Hind-Lick procedure.

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[Ol Olsoc]

Was the bribe in the 8 figures or 9?

It is no secret that the Olymipics are irredeemably corrupt. And the way to get a sport in is to pay the baksheesh, the Directors like daily gifts while they are deciding who gets in - if you don't at least you know that you have enriched them.

Sounds crazy, but it is well documented https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

And they have not changed one bit.

Anyone who watches supports the corruption.

Lets have ...

[PPH]

... a Fortnite biathlon. Play one level or scene, then on to the cross country skis for a kilometer or two. See how many gamers drop from cardiac arrest before they can make it to round three.

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[Cpt_Kirks]

You forgot the assault rifle duel after the skiing.

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[ffkom]

The few people that make it on some top ranked video gaming team are probably keeping physically fit for good reason, and likely much healthier than the average population. But the big issue I see is that video gaming is highly correlated to not moving, and spending too many hours seated, in the average population. Much unlike non-virtual sports, which promote physical activities, even in those that are not professionals or not even good at a sport.

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[tlhIngan]

The few people that make it on some top ranked video gaming team are probably keeping physically fit for good reason, and likely much healthier than the average population. But the big issue I see is that video gaming is highly correlated to not moving, and spending too many hours seated, in the average population. Much unlike non-virtual sports, which promote physical activities, even in those that are not professionals or not even good at a sport.

Most eSports teams have realized that healthy bodies are re

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[Luckyo]

Chess boxing is unironically interesting as a sport and I'd watch it as an Olympic sport.

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[NoWayNoShapeNoForm]

Chess boxing is unironically interesting as a sport and I'd watch it as an Olympic sport.

So is Chess un-boxing /s

I remember when a "sport" was not company-owned

[ffkom]

And I for one would never, ever call anything a "sport" that is owned and licensed for use by one single company.

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[Luckyo]

First actually good counter argument. There should be a requirement to open up the game put into Olympics to everyone. I.e. full access to server code and ability to license to run it yourself for a reasonable fee. Same as every major sport.

But that's why esports have a genuine scaling problem compared to normal sport. I can make a football field, draw lines, put correctly sized goals and I can hold tournaments with official rules for as long as I want. Can't do same thing for Fortnite or any other major es

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[Spitemaster]

You say that, but FIFA.

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[ffkom]

You don't need anything from FIFA to play, no license, no account, no server connection, and the vast majority of football players never had anything to do with that event-TV-rights-marketing company named FIFA.

Fuck completely off.

[redback]

Seriously?

Fuck completely off.

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[thegarbz]

Why? I mean what arbitrary reason do you have to not include something which is potentially a demonstration of skill and dedication in a contest that is about showing demonstration of skill and dedication?

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[Can'tNot]

I will grant that "sport" is not a well defined word, but I think it implies more than just skill and dedication. When I write a script I don't think of myself as "playing a sport." I don't think of brain surgeons or school teachers as athletes.

On reflection, I think I'm so resistant to the notion of esports just for the crass commercialism that it embodies. Different companies have been trying to make that happen for decades now, and they've only recently been able to get some traction. I've grown accus

How are they testing for aimbot?

[sapgau]

Well sure, must be the same like the normal Olympics testing for performance drugs.
Are we seeing checks for cheats and aimbots? The stakes are high!

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[sound+vision]

They should all be on standardized hardware that gets imaged before the match.

No idea if they are. It should be a basic priority, but I recently found out baseball fields aren't leveled, and they've been playing that for over a century.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Computer games aren't sports

[RightwingNutjob]

Card games aren't sports.

Chess isn't a sport.

Slot machines aren't a sport.

Thinking up reasons for why not-sports are sports isn't a sport.

Starcraft

[JThundley]

How does Fortnite make it in but not Starcraft? The game has been played professionally for a quarter of a century at this point!

See you in 2094

[tepples]

If Activision Blizzard doesn't want StarCraft in the Olympic Games, Activision Blizzard has the right under current law to block the Olympic Games from adding StarCraft until 2094. See two articles by Kyle Orland in Ars Technica: "Why Nintendo can legally shut down any Smash Bros. tournament it wants" [arstechnica.com] (July 2013) and "Nintendo tells Smash World Tour it can no longer operate unlicensed tournaments" [arstechnica.com] (November 2022).

Penny Arcade a week ago...

[Briareos]

Seems they got it about right [penny-arcade.com]... *shudder*

Start with the Original E-Sport: Ham Radio

[bplipschitz]

Perhaps they should have started with the Original E-Sport: Ham Radio Contesting. 73, BPL

Olypmic ESports should be standarized

[juancn]

To really be an Olympic ESport, a single provider of the game shouldn't be allowed to make changes to it. There should be a sport association that sets the rules and standards for the game and several providers of equipment.

Heck, there should be several manufacturers of games complying with the rules in the same way there sport arenas are built by different construction companies.

At least there should be an open source standard Fortnite distribution with certified builds by the association.

This is jus